June 2015: Tips for Crossing Your Fundraising Goal Line

If you’re a non-profit, most likely your fiscal year-end is looming. In this edition of Transforming Challenges, we offer some fundraising tips for making sure you cross that finish line with flying colors.

At The Reid Group, we have a passion for helping leaders and organizations transform their challenges into opportunities to create a better world. One of the ways we do that is through this e-letter, Transforming Challenges. Is there someone you know who could benefit from receiving it? Forward this edition to them and encourage them to subscribe for themselves. They’ll thank you—and so do we!

The Reid Group News

Congratulations to Rick McCord, one of the consultants working on the Making All Things New in the Archdiocese of New York, on receiving an award from St. John in Collegeville, MN for the advancement of lay ecclesial ministry.

Tom Reid and Karen Castellon will offer a training session in the Archdiocese of New York for the parishes who received the final decisions from Cardinal Dolan on May 8. The training will focus on helping these parishes work successfully toward merger and collaboration.

The Reid Group has been hired by the Diocese of Trenton for a planning project to revitalize and strengthen the diocese’s parishes and ministries. John Reid and Tom Reid will be the featured presenters at the Priest Convocation in September and the Deacon Convocation in October as the process kicks off.

St. Pius X in Redwood City, CA has hired The Reid Group to facilitate its first-ever parish planning process. John Reid will work with Fr. John Hurley, a Paulist priest, to co-facilitate the process.

Tom Reid and Anne Skorski will begin the parish planning process in September for the last two deaneries in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

So as you look at your individual or organizational future, what are your challenges? Could you benefit from skilled support? Give us a call at 206-432-3565 or send us an e-mail to start transforming those challenges into opportunities.

The Reid Group teleseminar series

As we approach either the mid-point or the end of your fiscal year, how are your fundraising results compared with your fundraising goals?

During this teleseminar a number of action tips will be presented to strengthen your fundraising efforts. In addition, the session will offer practical suggestions for specific steps you can take to build upon the suggestions presented on the call.

To register for this teleseminar, simply click here. Materials and resource information to be used on the call will be sent to all registrants.

Are there issues or questions you would like to hear more about? Send your comments and feedback to us at info@thereidgroup.biz.

Feature Focus

Hug Your Mission: Tips for Crossing Your Fundraising Goal Line?

If your fiscal year is the calendar year, you’re coming up on the half-way point in your fundraising plan. Are you on track? If not, how are you re-tooling the plan to reach your year-end goals?

If, like many non-profits, your fiscal year is July-June, it’s crunch time. But what can you do in just a few weeks?

Actually, a lot.

The key is to “hug your mission.” Make your mission the focal point of communication with donors. Why is it important? How do your organization’s efforts contribute to it?

You also need to make your mission huggable. Put a face on it and tell stories that show the impact it has on our world.

Whether your year-end finish line is two weeks away or six months ahead, your fundraising plan will benefit from hugging your mission. And to get your donors to hug it too, here are a few tips:

First and foremost, create a sense of urgency. Why should donors give now? What chance might be lost if they delay their gift? (I realize that your sense of urgency is fueled by the looming year-end goal line, but that won’t do much to motivate your donors.) One way to do this is to have one of your corporate sponsors or major donors offer to match any gifts given in a limited period of time.

Segment your donors and tailor your solicitations. Review your donor list and identify those that are LYBUNT (they gave Last Year But Unfortunately Not This year) and SYBUNT (they gave in Some Year But Unfortunately Not This year). Put your mission front and center with these former donors. Refer–in specifics–to their previous contributions and the difference they made. Tell them–again in specifics–the chance they have now to make a difference with their gift.

Make the calls personal. Who on your team can make phone calls or personal visits to potential donors? Look at Board members, staff members and volunteers who are thoroughly conversant with your mission and able to engage others in its importance.

With an eye on your year-end goal line, now is the time to channel your American Pharaoh. Make your mission your message, galvanize its supporters in the stands and carry it across the finish line like a Triple Crown winner.

Products

The Art of Change: Faith, Vision and Prophetic Planning

Think about what your organization could do if the process of planning met the inevitability of change head-on—and it resulted in significant success.

Organizations large and small, religious and secular, for-profit and not-for-profit, successful and unsuccessful, go through change. John Reid and Maureen Gallagher of the Reid Group have been instrumental in helping many groups discover the power of Prophetic Planning. This book presents a complete overview with detailed information that any organization will find useful in understanding how to plan for change.